Kashim: Adoke stopped Jonathan from removing me as governor

Kashim Shettima, governor of Borno state, says President Goodluck Jonathan nearly removed him in 2014 with the belief that he was responsible for the disappearance of Chibok schoolgirls.

He said Mohammed Bello Adoke, who was the attorney-general of the federation at the time, told the president “you don’t have the power to remove even an elected councillor”.

Adoke’s position was supported by Taminu Turaki, minister of special duties, Shettima said.

He was speaking on Thursday at the launch of ‘On a Platter of Gold: How Jonathan Won and Lost Nigeria’, written by Bolaji Abdullahi — who served as a minister under Jonathan from 2011-2014.

”The people around Jonathan told him that I was hiding the girls, that there was no abduction. They said I was hiding the girls to embarrass him,” he said.

He described Jonathan as a “decent person” who was misled by the people around him.

”The whole world was talking about the abduction for three weeks before Jonathan spoke with me for the first time. He summoned the principal of the school and the commissioner for education to Abuja and ordered the IG to arrest them,” Shettima said.

He also revealed that the police commissioner and Chibok DPO were summoned while the brigade commander, who was an Ijawman, was left out.

”Those who advised the president did not want him to know the truth. They knew that the Ijaw officer, who was a captain, would tell a more credible story,” the governor said, insinuation that the kidnap narrative was shaped to present it as a northern conspiracy again Jonathan.